RECENT United States (US) surveillance flights over north-eastern Nigeria have shown what appeared to be large groups of girls held together in remote locations.
The development is raising hopes among domestic and foreign officials that they are among the group that Boko Haram abducted from a boarding school in April, US and Nigerian officials said.
The surveillance suggested that, at least, some of the 219 schoolgirls still held captive had not been forced into marriage or sex slavery, as had been feared, but were instead being used as bargaining chips for the release of prisoners.